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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26194429">Three First Kisses</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunatasha/pseuds/Lunatasha'>Lunatasha</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Bleach</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Human, F/M, Fluff, One Shot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 06:34:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,049</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26194429</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunatasha/pseuds/Lunatasha</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Their first ever kiss had been decades ago now, not that either of them actually remembered it. Their second kiss, the first one they remember, is the one they both consider to be their actual first. And their third first kiss, somehow out of everything that was what she was most nervous about. The kiss they'd share after all the ceremony, after all the vows.</p>
<p>Written for HitsuKarin Day 2020!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hitsugaya Toushirou/Kurosaki Karin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>37</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Three First Kisses</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This all got inspired by the prompt 'How'd they be after their first kiss'. It's more of a tangent rather than strictly following the prompt, but I liked how it turned out! I hope you enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="western">Their first ever kiss had been decades ago now, not that either of them actually remembered it. They'd been in nursery, Toshiro barely four years old and Karin only seven months older. They had decided to play with toy cars but there were only two left in the box, besides the ones that either had tires missing or didn't roll very smoothly, and Karin figured those didn't count. She didn't really like the yellow one, but she gave Toshiro the blue one anyway as she knew it was his favourite colour. Toshiro had always been bright, and he quickly worked out that Karin had decided to put up with the car she didn't like so he could have the best one. Toshiro wasn't always very good with words, especially back then, so he grabbed the sides of her face and clumsily pushed his lips against hers instead. Karin had blinked at him for a moment before smiling and hugging him briefly before pulling him away from the toy box and towards the part of the floor that was best for rolling the cars around, and that was that.</p>
<p class="western"><br/>Their second kiss, the first one they remember, is the one they both consider to be their actual first. Looking back, Karin supposes it had been building for a while. Toshiro's family moved when they were still in elementary school, not too far away, he didn't have to change schools thank goodness, but it meant he ended up in a different catchment area than her when it came to middle school. Going to different schools and living just a bit too far away to visit on her own had inevitably led to them drifting apart, eventually not hanging out at all. Karin always thought that was a shame, Toshiro had been her first friend, her best friend, but because of something as simple as location it fell apart.</p>
<p class="western"><br/>She distinctly remembers the moment she saw him again, the first time in years. It was the second day of high school and she had gone to the lockers to grab something only to find him at his, a few metres away. She had called out his name immediately, mainly out of surprise and watched as he turned to face her, recognising her instantly. Karin was a little impressed he did to be honest, it had been ages since he last saw her and she had changed a lot. She'd become taller than him, her hair long, her face slowly losing baby fat. Toshiro had changed too of course, but with his white hair and bright blue eyes he was always much easier to spot. At the time Karin hoped they could just pick up where they left off but found that it wasn't really possible. They both wanted to be friends again, the effort was there, but it was awkward. Back in elementary school they always knew everything about each other because they had been friends since nursery, they spent practically all their time together as they were in the same class, it was pretty much impossible to hide anything from each other. But suddenly they had to learn about each other in a way they hadn't before. They had become firm friends again within the month but it felt different, like there was a barrier between them.</p>
<p class="western"><br/>It had taken Karin a while, several months in fact, to figure out what that barrier was. Why talking to him felt different, why she didn't feel like she could be as tactile as she used to be. They had put the barrier up themselves, a self-defence mechanism, afraid to get too close to each other, because things <em>were</em> different. Karin found herself looking at Toshiro a little too long just as often as she turned to see him rapidly look away, clearly having been staring at her. Watched Toshiro turn down dating offers for flimsy reasons like being too busy to date despite having no problem going with Karin to watch new movies at the cinema, or going to the park with her. Just as she turned down boys for, well, not being Toshiro. It had been frustrating, dancing around each other for months, with Karin constantly flipping between being sure he liked her back to being sure they were just being friends and she was fabricating it all in her head. Both of them would push against the barrier between them, test it, but they always pulled back, scared to push all the way through. Until one day in June. It had been stiflingly hot, and Karin had been completely fed up of being cooped up in a warm school building all day, so the minute the bell rang for the end of the day she found Toshiro and dragged him to an ice cream shop nearby. It was too busy for them to sit inside, so Toshiro had pulled her towards the side of the building instead, away from all the pedestrians, the tall brick wall giving them a bit of shade.</p>
<p class="western"><br/>Karin had been teasing him, about how he always got watermelon flavour without fail, while Karin had a tendency to try out different flavours, her favourite seemingly depending on the month. Toshiro had rolled his eyes, told her that she hadn't actually tried watermelon yet, and that she wasn't allowed to judge him until she did. He scooped some up with the little plastic spoon and held it out to her. She knew he was goading her, didn't actually expect her to go for it, but she thought it would be funnier if she did, staring him down as she guided the spoon in his hand towards her mouth. Watched as his eyes widened a little in surprise, and then go down to her lips, staring at them. Karin didn't know why that day was different, maybe the heat had gotten to her head or something, all she remembers thinking in that moment was <em>'fuck it'</em>. She went for it, went crashing all the way through that barrier and kissed him. Her right hand still holding her ice cream cone, she slid her left hand round his neck, pulled him to her and pressed her lips against his, perhaps a little aggressively, but Toshiro didn't seem to care. His hand mirrored hers, gripping the back of her neck lightly and he kissed her back. It was a little awkward, with it being their first proper kiss and Karin pulled back after a moment to giggle at it all. Toshiro smiled back, blush on his cheeks before they both looked away. It had taken a couple of tries to start a conversation, both of them feeling pretty embarrassed and shy even though they were happy. Eventually through stilted words they had managed to agree out loud that they should start dating.</p>
<p class="western"><br/>Karin hadn't really thought about their future back then. She was only sixteen years old, she was just happy to be dating the boy she liked, didn't really think about whether they'd last, where they'd be in ten years. She wondered if that's why things went so well, because they didn't really overthink it. Naturally they ran into problems, the main one being going to different universities, but they had been dating for two years by then, long distance sucked, but with their solid foundation they weren't about to split up just because of distance, not <em>again</em> thank you. They loved each other, it was easy to stick together. And sure, maybe they took longer to get married than other people expected, but it had simply been their natural path. Dating throughout high school and university, getting engaged the year after graduating at the age of twenty two. It was a little strange at the time, a voice in her head asking that 'wasn't she too young to get engaged?', but it was one of the easiest decisions she'd ever made. She and Toshiro had just been regularly separated for years to study, they both wanted something to definitively tie themselves to each other. Both of their families were ecstatic, wanted to start planning the wedding immediately, they didn't really understand that at the time they only wanted to be engaged. Betrothal felt right, marriage not quite yet. She was confident in the promise, but not in their situation just yet. They were still trying to settle into careers post-graduation, trying to get finances sorted, trying to find a place to live together before they went all the way to marriage. They didn't even think about wedding planning till another year later. Well not officially anyway. Both she and Toshiro had ideas ready before they started properly discussing, making it obvious that they had been thinking about it, to themselves.</p>
<p class="western"><br/>Said wedding planning took a while, they were both busy, working full time, and they weren't really rushing to get married anyway. They took their time, writing out ideas, forming to-do lists and eventually settled on a wedding date fifteen months in advance. Their first idea was to get married in June, to get married on the anniversary of their first kiss. It was a sweet, romantic idea, but not really a practical one. Toshiro hated the heat, and while Karin tended to fair hot weather better, she didn't know if that would hold true while wearing a wedding dress. They ended up going for September instead, still warm and sunny, but not overly hot. The wedding planning went by in a stressful blur and suddenly she was here, on their wedding day, a bit over ten years later from when they started dating. Somehow out of everything the thing she was most nervous about was the kiss. The kiss they'd share after all the ceremony, after all the vows. Karin had no doubt about marrying Toshiro, had no doubt that the wedding would be lovely, both she and her soon-to-be-husband were pains in the asses about organisation, so she doubted anything major would go wrong. But she's never had to think about kissing him in front of all her friends and family before. It was a weird feeling. It was going to be their first kiss as a married couple, part of her felt like it should be private, just between them.</p>
<p class="western"><br/>She tried her best to hold back her nerves as she walked down the aisle, as she stood up next to Toshiro, looking as beautiful as he ever did. She didn't want him to think she was nervous about marrying him, that part was fine. Fantastic even. It had been a long time coming. She let out a breath of relief as she noticed the little signs of nervousness on his face, feeling grounded next to him, knowing he felt a little nervous too. As expected, the whole ceremony went without a hitch, except for the vows where it took all of her strength to not cry as she spoke. She didn't want to cry now, she didn't cry often but when she did she could cry for ages, and she wasn't about to do that with dozens of people watching her. A couple of tears escaped as Toshiro read out his vows to her, the realisation finally hitting her. She was marrying <em>Toshiro</em>. She was marrying the absolute love of her life. And suddenly she didn't care that everyone was watching. Their minister finally, <em>finally</em>, proclaimed that they were officially married, and that Toshiro could kiss her. She didn't give him a chance. She threw her bouquet vaguely in the direction of her bridesmaids and grabbed him, desperate to kiss him, her <em>husband</em>. She didn't care about their audience, about how they looked, she was officially married to the person she loved more than anything, this was their first kiss as husband and wife, and she was going to kiss him <em>properly</em> thank you very much. She pulled an inch back from him when she ran out breath, grinning happily at him, unable to stop herself from kissing him again. She pulled back a second time, for good this time, laughing a little at the shy look on Toshiro's-, no, her <em>husband's</em> face. “You're stuck with me forever now.”</p>
<p class="western"><br/>He held her hands and grinned back at her. “I wouldn't have it any other way.”</p>
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